Thursday, June 28, 2007

Reading one of Wayne Jacobsen's articles today was life giving. Every where I look there is grace being revealed to me.

For so long, my lists were not filled with grace. Just the opposite. They were filled with obligation and "ought-to-ness."

Towards the end of the article, "Painting Outside the Lines" he gives some freedoms he believes we have. Listen for the list of grace that differs from what we usually experience when reading other religious literature or what lists we have in our own minds.

He says:

It is the freedom to put your relationship with Jesus above anything else.It is the freedom to obey him and live in the truth of Scripture even if others don't approve.It is the freedom to engage Christ's body however he calls you--within structures or beyond them.It is the freedom to love God's people and broken lives in the world without putting people in boxes.It is the freedom to walk away from abusive religious settings and so-called 'leaders.'It is the freedom to ask hard questions and not allow your faith in God to be questioned.It is the freedom to be honest about your struggles without being condemned or accused of rebellion.It is the freedom to be known for who you really are and not pressured to pretend to be anything more or less.

I love the list but a few of these stood out. I love the one that says we have, "freedom to ask hard questions and not allow your faith in God to be questioned. " I would add that not only do we not allow others to question our faith, but also allow ourselves the freedom to question without feeling like we are abandoning our own faith or worse, feeling like we are going to hell for it.

And then I love the freedom to love others inside the body and outside in the world and not having to put them in boxes. I don't have to change them. I just love them, and somewhere in that, Father will do the rearranging of their lives to bring them into relationship with Him. (notice I did not say that he would change them either - although change is inevitable)

One of my daughters said last night, "Mom, could all this grace really be true?"

If you have other "freedoms" you can think of and want to list, please leave a comment. I'll compile the whole lot in another post if there is enough.